The lanky, California maker of pinot noir, chardonnay, and syrah told me at his Sonoma winery that he had his conversion in 2005, after returning from a trip to Burgundy and the Rhone. He tasted the pinot noirs and syrahs he had been making since starting his own label, Copain Wines , in 1999. Thus he decided to change his style. MORE >>

looked at what I have and decided on the 2005 Domaine des Croix Bourgogne , $25, Becky Wasserman Selections. perhaps he got excited about the 2005 fruit and threw everything he had at it. Imagine having to review this wine for a magazine or some sort of publication, having to score it based on one experience in 2008. Burgundy.I MORE >>

Apparently the latest issue of Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate came out yesterday with Parker’s reviews for the 2010 barrel samples and in-bottle tastings of 2008s. But Parker has given the general comment that 2010 ranks as one of “the three greatest Bordeaux vintages I have tasted in my career&# alongside 2009 and 2005. MORE >>

Robert Parker tasted the wines with winemaker Helen Turley. At their tasting together, the Marcassin owners poured the ’06 for Parker alongside their ’06s. Meanwhile he heaped praise on the Marcassin handing out high scores and calling it “prodigious.&# Consider these tasting notes. 97 points. 79 points. MORE >>

On Marketplace Morning Report this morning, a commentator said that consumers don’t even know what pinot noir tastes like. Does $9 pinot really taste like pinot noir? A French court found 12 executives guilty of selling the equivalent of 18 million bottles of cheaper wine as pinot noir. The accused made seven million euros ($9.5 MORE >>